September, 18 2020, 12:00am EDT
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UltraViolet on the Death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Women’s Group Honors Justice Ginsburg’s Extraordinary Legacy and Demands the Senate Respect Ginsburg's Final Wishes
WASHINGTON
Statement from Shaunna Thomas, co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, a leading national women's group:
"Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an icon, a pioneer, a hero and a legend. We as a nation owe her a debt that can't fully be repaid. LGBTQ Rights, reproductive rights, gender equity, racial justice--she was a giant in advancing our freedoms and she helped transform our society for the better."
"Her spirit must inspire us in these hard days ahead as we honor her incredible life and protect her legacy."
"RBG did her part, fighting for our rights until the very end. Now, it's on us to continue the work to protect our rights, lives, health, and freedoms. We honor RBG by digging into the good trouble and fight she devoted her life to and ensuring that her last wishes are honored."
"We demand that the Senate not move to replace her until a new president is sworn in."
"We must uphold the work she committed herself to until the end by protecting it and expanding it. And we must commit our all to the critical work of the next 45 days to ensure that a new administration is in the White House come January to fulfill her dying wish."
UltraViolet is a powerful and rapidly growing community of people mobilized to fight sexism and create a more inclusive world that accurately represents all women, from politics and government to media and pop culture.
LATEST NEWS
Rudy Giuliani Permanently Disbarred in New York State
A court found that the former Trump lawyer "flagrantly misused his prominent position" and "repeatedly and intentionally made false statements, some of which were perjurious," about the 2020 election.
Jul 02, 2024
Rudy Giuliani—onetime mayor of New York City, federal prosecutor, and attorney for former President Donald Trump—was permanently disbarred in New York state on Tuesday for lying about the 2020 presidential election being "stolen" by Democrats.
The New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division unanimously disbarred Giulian, calling his propagation of Trump's "Big Lie" about 2020 election fraud a threat to the public interest and the legal profession.
The panel found that Giuliani—whose law license was suspended in 2021—"flagrantly misused his prominent position as the personal attorney for former President Trump and his campaign" and "repeatedly and intentionally made false statements, some of which were perjurious, to the federal court, state lawmakers, the public … and this court concerning the 2020 presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country's electoral process."
"The seriousness of [Giuliani's] misconduct cannot be overstated," the court stressed.
As the New York Law Journalreported:
Once known as "America's Mayor," the 80-year-old has faced mounting legal battles and financial ruin in recent years.
Giuliani was indicted in Arizona in May alongside 17 others for his alleged role in an attempt to overturn Trump's loss in the state during the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection in December following a $148 million defamation judgment leveled against him for false statements in the wake of former President Donald Trump's failed attempt to retain the presidency.
He is also facing multiple actions in New York state—including a $10 million complaint from an alleged former employee who accuses him of sexual assault and wage theft—though many were stayed in the wake of his Chapter 11 filing.
Giuliani—who is also facing felony charges in Georgia along with Trump and others who allegedly tried to subvert the 2020 election—denies these and other accusations, including that he tried to sell presidential pardons for $2 million each.
Barry Kamins, the retired judge who represented Giuliani as he fought to keep his New York law license, said his client "is obviously disappointed in the decision" and that they are weighing their appeals options.
A bar disciplinary committee in the District of Columbia has also recommended that Giuliani be disbarred.
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'Monumental': Advocates Applaud Federal Rule to Protect Workers From Extreme Heat
The administration has established that "every worker in America has the right to shade, water, and rest while working in temperatures that could kill them," a labor leader said.
Jul 02, 2024
Labor advocates celebrated on Tuesday following the Biden administration's announcement of a proposed rule to protect workers from extreme heat—the first national workplace heat safety standard.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor, published the rule, which the administration says would protect about 36 million indoor and outdoor employees from heat-related injuries and illnesses. It follows similar regulations that five states have approved in recent years.
Labor groups said the rule was the result of decades of advocacy by farmworkers and others subjected to extreme heat, who tend to be working-class people of color or immigrants. The movement was galvanized by heat-related deaths in workplaces around the country.
"This is a bittersweet moment for farmworkers," United Farm Workers president Teresa Romero said in a statement. "Every significant heat safety regulation at the state, and now federal, level was written in the blood of farmworkers."
"Today, the federal government put itself on the right side of history by seeking, for the first time, to establish the precedent that every worker in America has the right to shade, water, and rest while working in temperatures that could kill them," Romero added.
Juley Fulcher, a worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, an advocacy group that first called for a federal workplace heat protection standard in 2011, said in a statement that the OSHA rule was a "monumental victory for those who toil in the summer heat."
President Joe Biden has and will continue to protect workers. This President continues to show us where his priorities lie.
Thank you for prioritizing workers' right to safe working conditions, @POTUS. https://t.co/D4YMvWgIml
— Machinists Union (@MachinistsUnion) July 2, 2024
The focus on protection from heat comes as millions of Americans are under heat advisories this week and fossil-fuel driven climate change causes record-setting temperatures month after month.
The OSHA regulation, which will be the subject of written comments and a public hearing before being finalized, requires worker access to clean drinking water, indoor or shaded areas, rest breaks, and heat-related training. The regulation contains tiers so that certain protections kick in at a heat index of 80°F and still more at 90°F. The rule mandates an acclimatization process for new employees, as they are especially at risk in high temperatures.
The rule would also substantially increase the penalties that employers might pay in the case of heat-related employee injuries, according toThe Guardian.
Bill McGuire, a climate scientist at University College London, wrote on social media that the new rule was "absolutely vital" but warned that "working outside will not be possible at all in the extreme summer temperatures that coming years will bring."
The federal rule comes amid a push by labor and environmental groups to establish more workplace protections against extreme heat. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) helped organize a "thirst strike" with unions and civil society groups on the U.S. Capitol steps last July. Responding to bottom-up pressure, California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota, and Washington have passed workplace heat safety standards in recent years.
Industry groups have lobbied against the rules, with remarkable success in states such as Florida and Texas, both of which have gone as far as passing laws that prohibit local authorities from mandating heat protections for outdoor workers. The Texas law was ruled unconstitutional by a state district court judge last year.
The new federal rule comes as a part of a larger administration effort to address the extreme heat that Americans are increasingly facing. An OSHA program that began in 2022 has conducted more than 5,000 heat-related inspections in workplaces with the most heat exposure, according to a Labor Department statement.
Separately on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a set of 656 projects aimed at preparing for extreme heat and other weather disasters, at a total cost of nearly $1 billion.
Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an emailed statement that the project funding "only scratches the surface of the nation's enormous need for tools to combat extreme heat" and pushed for FEMA to classify extreme heat and wildlife smoke events as "major disasters," which would unlock much more key funding.
Su did praise OSHA's "landmark rule" and called for an "urgent, government-wide game plan to tackle catastrophic extreme heat."
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Israeli Bombings Kill More Palestinians as 250,000 Ordered to Evacuate Khan Younis
"It means yet another day, week, chapter of misery for these hundreds of thousands of people," said one United Nations worker.
Jul 02, 2024
Hearing once again from the Israel Defense Forces that they must evacuate to a so-called "humanitarian zone," hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday were forced to search for safety ahead of a likely ground offensive in the city.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that roughly 250,000 people are living and seeking shelter in the evacuation zone—more than 10% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million.
The evacuation order, which was posted on social media on Monday, also includes nearby localities including al-Qarara and Bani Suhaila.
The IDF said after the order was announced that patients and healthcare providers at European Hospital, the largest operating medical facility in Gaza, were not required to evacuate, but the hospital director told the Associated Press that most had already been relocated.
"The hospital staff and the patients decided to already evacuate themselves," said Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, in a press briefing. "We plea the European Gaza hospital will be spared, will be non-damaged."
Peeperkorn said three patients remained at the hospital.
Since Israel began its assault on Gaza and its near-total blockade on humanitarian aid in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack in October, the IDF has attacked hospitals across the enclave, even as they have served as shelters for forcibly displaced people.
The IDF has ordered evacuations from places including northern Gaza and the southern city of Rafah—only to bomb so-called "safe" zones after displacing people.
In late May, at least 46 people were killed when Israel bombed a tent encampment in a "humanitarian area" in Rafah after beginning a full-scale ground invasion of the city, where more than a million people had been displaced. At least 25 people were killed in another attack on an encampment in the area last month.
Sam Rose, a planning director for UNRWA, toldAl Jazeera that the latest evacuation order put a quarter of a million people in a "harrowing, horrific, and incredibly difficult" situation.
"It means yet another day, week, chapter of misery for these hundreds of thousands of people," said Rose. "Most of them have been displaced several times. Some had just returned from Rafah where they were displaced a few weeks ago... They go without knowing precisely where they will end up because this evacuation order told people to go urgently—they know that if they don't go out within 24 hours the worst is to come."
Soon after the evacuation order, at least nine people were killed in an Israeli strike on a home near European Hospital in Khan Younis.
Rose noted that the coastal area of al-Mawasi, where many people will likely go, is "already so overcrowded. There is no room to pitch a tent, there is no water, no infrastructure, no sanitary services. Many spend the night in vehicles or they sleep on their donkey carts."
Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told The Washington Post that the forced displacement is taking place amid temperatures over 86°F "every day."
"Even the healthiest people will struggle to make a move in this heat with lack of food, with lack of water," she said. "And then where do they go? That's the next question."
Ahmed al-Najjar, a 26-year-old resident of the Bani Suhaila neighborhood, toldAgence France Presse that with nowhere to flee, his family has been forced to stay in the area after first attempting to leave.
"We did not know where we would go and we do not have enough money to buy a new tent," he said. "We had to spend the night on the street and that has increased our stress. This morning we decided to go home again. There is nowhere else... Whatever happens, happens. We have nothing to lose now."
The IDF's apparent plan to expand its assault on Khan Younis came as The New York Timesreported that security leaders in Israel are pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, objecting to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to continue the assault until Hamas is eliminated—an objective even some top Israeli military officials believe is impossible—and all Israeli hostages are released.
The Times reported that senior military officials believe a cease-fire is the "swiftest way" to free captives remaining in Gaza.
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